Without fertilizer, we would all be in a lot of trouble.

It is only our knowledge of plant nutrients, and our ability to find substances that provide those nutrients to them, that allows us to use agriculture in the way that we do, in the same fields every year. Without this basic tool, we would have to create an entirely new field every few years for every thing that is grown.

The basic problem comes from harvest. In that process, we remove bits that would once have fallen to the ground and composted, thus replenishing the soil. Since we remove a good portion of the plant during harvest, we are essentially taking those nutrients away. Over time, there isn't enough left in the soil to grow crops with.

That's where fertilizer comes in.

The application of fertilizer replenishes these nutrients, allowing crops to be repeatedly grown on the same plot of land, year after year.

It isn't exactly 'new' technology. Madehow.com informs that manure from animals was spread on crops far, far back into the Agricultural Revolution, as the earliest farmers learned from experience that the first year's yields on a plot of land were always much better than those from subsequent years. The ancient Egyptians began to add ashes from their fires to it as well. The understanding of plant nutrients and fertilizer production really took off in the late 18th through the 19th century.

What has happened is that, over the years, we have evolved our fertilizer to the point of amazing concentrations of plant nutrients – one gram of modern chemical fertilizer has the available plant nutrients of something like 100 pounds of manure! Crop yields have improved dramatically, allowing us to feed the multitudes we have become as a species.

The problem, ironically, begins to occur because these chemical fertilizers do have so many nutrients in them.

Plants can only absorb so much, so fast. An amazing percentage of these nutrients are, over time, washed too far under the ground by rain and irrigation for the roots of the plants to reach. These 'wasted' nutrients eventually find their way to the groundwater table, and from there make their way into the watersheds and water supplies of virtually every stream, river, tributary, or lake in the world, and into the ocean itself.

And that's not so good.

Nitrates, the primary form of fertilizer pollution found in water sources, have many negative consequences.

First off, they promote rampant and uncontrollable growth of algae. This increases the turbidity of water, and the toxins they release en masse can cause fish death. Either while growing, or sometimes when they rapidly die, these algeal blooms can radically alter, or even destroy, the natural ecosystem within a body of water. They sometimes cause less beneficial fish to become dominant, cause all fish to die, and even make the water toxic to human beings.

These nitrates are responsible for huge 'dead zones' at the mouth of almost every river as it reaches the ocean. Massive blooms of red algae are created by the run-off as it enters the ocean, and is responsible for massive drifting 'dead zones' throughout the ocean. Any fish that gets too close to these blooms dies from the toxins they release. With something like 90% of the world's fisheries currently over-fished, we don't actually have that much to spare. It is no longer so simple as saying, “Well, plenty of fish in the ocean”....because there aren't, anymore.

The nitrates are also very unhealthy for humans. They have been linked to numerous neurological and physiological conditions, especially in children and infants. They are directly link to so-called “Blue-Baby Syndrome”, where they bind with hemoglobin in the blood and prevent it from carrying oxygen. Infants with this condition who are not treated quickly can die. They are also linked to miscarriages, cancers, and even depression.

Inorganic, chemical fertilizers are the key culprits. The concentration and high water-solubility of these chemicals and their nutrients cause the most waste. Organic fertilizers tend to release their nutrients in a far more controlled, slow fashion; and those nutrients are not as soluble in water. One study by Stanford grad student Sasha B. Kramer, and professor Hal A. Mooney, showed more than 5 times the amount of nitrates 'leeched' into the groundwater with chemical fertilizers than with organic compounds. It also showed no decrease in yields.

As our population grows, one thing we can be sure of is that we will need more food – which means we will need more fertilizer. Increasingly, the benefits of organic farming and production are becoming clearer. There may be no such thing as a perfect solution...but some are evidently better than others.

Go organic. It is probably the single most important decision you can make as far as reducing world pollution, and helping our species attain that oh-so-sought-after state of sustainability.

Together, we can do it.